Telematics units within mobile vehicles provide subscribers with connectivity to a telematics service provider (TSP). The TSP provides the subscriber with an array of services ranging from emergency call handling and stolen vehicle recovery to diagnostics monitoring and turn-by-turn navigation. Telematics units are often provisioned and activated at a point of sale when a subscriber purchases a telematics-equipped vehicle. Upon activation, the telematics unit can be utilized to provide a subscriber with the telematics services.
Audio navigation prompts are an integral part of virtually every navigation device/service. The audio navigation prompts are, of course desirable in a variety of circumstances inasmuch as users can receive directions without having to view a navigation display. With integrated navigation systems, navigation displays are typically positioned within vehicle dashboards. This contrasts with standalone navigation devices that are often attached to an inside surface of a vehicle windshield. Integrating a navigation system into a vehicle's audio-visual infrastructure presents the opportunity of rendering audible turn-by-turn directions via the vehicle's infotainment/sound system speakers. The integration of the navigation system into the primary sound system ensures vehicle occupants are able to clearly understand the audible turn-by-turn directions and lessens the need to visually observe such directions. However, the enhanced presence of audible directions potentially enhances user annoyance when audible directions are needlessly issued in a potentially obtrusive manner.
For example, on a well known route (e.g. a route to work/school) that is taken without variation every weekday—or even one that a driver has taken several times in the past and thus needs no assistance—the audio turn-by-turn directions, potentially issued at a relatively high decibel level, may be viewed as an annoyance. The potential annoyance associated with even a relatively short disruption of a phone call or audio entertainment may lead users to disable the audio output aspect of the navigation system turn-by-turn directions thereby causing the audio output to be underutilized at times when it would be useful to the vehicle occupants.